The Gaming Community’s Problem

I believe that the gaming community is affected by a major problem. Sadly, this problem is part of the community. There are those of us who just want to play games and have fun with one another. Then there are those who feel the need to yell at game companies and ruin the experience of those who just want to enjoy themselves. I see this all the time in the forums of many games and the games themselves, such as Destiny, Call of Duty, and Halo. I don’t know what it is about these individuals who want to ruin other people’s experiences, but they are getting on my nerves and I’m sure they’re getting on yours too.

I think most people have heard of Destiny by now. If you haven’t, Destiny was said to be an amazing MMO from Bungie, the creators of Halo, and Activision, the publishers of Call of Duty, which are both amazing games. When it first released, millions were playing the game. Since then, the game has become a dry wasteland that only has a few million playing. I can already tell that many Destiny fans may not be happy to hear me say that, but I’m a Destiny player myself and it’s honestly become infected by complete jerks. I frequently go on the Destiny forums to see what’s up in the world of the game and instead of finding new information, I find people complaining that Bungie couldn’t make their dream game. Bungie is a company that likes to listen to their fans and that’s great, but it’s a double-edged sword. People complain and then Bungie continues to implement or fix whatever they wanted, which is then met with an uproar of people saying how stupid they were for implementing/fixing whatever they did. This has caused the game to spiral into what seems like an inescapable pit of stupid changes that were never needed. Was this Bungie’s fault? It was, but only partially. It’s the players who beg for changes that cause the game to be ruined ever so slowly.

Along with this, many players in the game choose not to play with certain people just because of their weaponry or armor. This isn’t as much of a problem now due to recent patches, but only a few months ago there was a weapon that destroyed everything in sight if you pulled the trigger. This weapon was called Gjallarhorn and it was a rocket launcher that had high damage along with mini missiles that would track targets after the first rocket had impacted against something. It felt amazing to fire and it was the most wanted weapon within the game. This was an amazing time for those who had these wonderful rockets because it was extremely rare and whoever wielded one could play with almost anyone they wanted. It was awesome being one of those few that had one, but soon I started to notice how players who didn’t have one were booted from teams just because of this issue. These guys were unable to play a game they really enjoyed because someone else felt they would drag the team down. That may sound really stupid, but teams are everything within Destiny, you can’t do much without one. This would make people who had never met before go onto the forums and say how much they hated one another because they couldn’t play without a Gjallarhorn. People would begin to just start insulting others who had done nothing wrong because of their misfortune, which led to those with good fortune yelling as well to defend themselves even though it’s just a game. Destiny since then has become a place where people will yell at Bungie for doing their best and where players can shout at one another for not being as skilled as someone else.

Now I’ve made Destiny look like a bad game, but that truly isn’t the case. I’ve also met folks who laugh at failures, smile at screw ups, and meet challenges with an enthusiastic attitude. These people really enjoy the game the way it is and the way the developers made it. This type of person will have a beneficial relationship with the industry–gamer gets a good game and the developer gets paid without complaint. These people can have a joyful aura around them that feels contagious, making everyone have a better time overall. I’ve also met many friends over this game who I still talk with and sometimes even meet up with in the real world. Destiny is an interesting game in a way that there are many people who choose to be mean to each other, but there are also people who want to make nice experiences with other players.

Destiny, if you think about it, is a perfect example of the whole gaming community. It’s where people can shout at each other for stupid reasons and ruin fun experiences for one another while sending the game into an endless pit of worsening. It’s also where lovely people can spend their time shooting aliens together in a place they recognize as a virtual world and share meaningful times with each other. This problem will never go away of course, that’s impossible, but it can get better. Maybe if some people wake up and smell the roses they can see that people are people and games are games. We don’t belong to the 1s and 0s that make up our entertainment, we’re free to do whatever we want. There’s no need to be rude to others who aren’t as skilled or talented at games because in real life those same people are better than you at certain things. Overall, game companies aren’t the ones who are ruining the industry–it’s ourselves.

It’s true that there are a lot of irritating people on Destiny, particularly in the LFG community. I’ve also met a lot of people who are willing to help. It goes both ways. Unfortunately Destiny’s biggest flaw for casual players or beginners is that you really need to keep up with it. If you miss the first few weeks of the new raid, you miss the crucial learning period. The entire community is working together at that time to figure out the best strategies. That’s really a special time.

As an experienced Destiny player, I can also understand the frustrations with new players. After running the raid 15+ times, I don’t have the patience to work with people who don’t know what they’re doing or don’t have adequate gear. I can sympathize with them, but I’m not going to spend 3 hours pulling them through. It’s best to find people who are on your level (I realize it can be very difficult sometimes) and work with them consistently to build that fireteam chemistry.

Patrick Meats

Wyatt Paulk,

Your entire point is merely; “I like destiny, and don’t like people criticizing it”. Additionally, you cannot escape destiny’s faults whether you are a fan or not. The game had a myriad of cut content and currently has micro-transactions that leave a lot of fiscally minded players bitter and angry. These aren’t faults created by gamers these were implemented by the developer & publisher. Meaning, they aren’t disputable, you either accept destiny and play it with the faults or like a lot of gamers now you get stung by the hype and end up turning that disappointment into anger towards the product and by association those who defend it.

So, i propose a more mature and less embarrassing point for you to make would have been; “As a fan of destiny I had/have a lot of fun with the game, however, I can see why people who have a less accepting view of exploitative capitalist ventures like this would be so annoyed. Also, i understand that those who attack destiny are just trying to save me time and money they deem wasted on that game. However, please don’t try and speak on my behalf, we don’t all have to agree.”

Because currently, you sound like a bitch.

Regards

Patrick

Nicholas Williams

This is not a well written editorial the point of your argument is lost, is it gamers being negative to each other in the community which is killing the industry or gamers getting angry at the developers is the issue you aren’t really giving a focused point. The points you make about gamers with other games are valid no one should be excluded because they don’t have a particular item, that is just ruining the fun for that person. However, ‘developers can get paid without complaint’, you mean we should excuse all gaming developers even if they release a broken game? Should we as ‘consumers’, gamers are consumers not just gamers, not be annoyed at anti-consumer practices like mircotransactions and some dlc practices or expect that be given a decent quality product. Using Destiny as an example, was Destiny not released with very little content (especially for a MMO) and people finding areas that were in the game but not available as they were most likely DLC content in the future. People are in their own right to complain if they are not happy with their product, that is what called being a consumer is. If those people ‘ruining the gaming industry’ had not make their grievances known, Bungie wouldn’t have gone back and fix the problems with the vanilla Destiny in the much acclaimed ‘The Taken King’ expansion. A better argument is that some people are not happy with anything but it doesn’t mean all complaining is negative to the gaming industry, if we gamers don’t have a voice to complain things like Aliens: Colonial Marines, Batman: Arkham Knight on PC, or Simcity will continue to happen, this is why we must be angry at unsatisfactory practices and games or else game developers have no reason to give us quality content and just give us mediocre year to year games that are the same.

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